Chapter 3: Chapter 3 : Di

Chapter 3: Emperor

“Emperor”’s decree immediately made the Ximu Clan take action around it. Since it concerned the life and death of the entire clan, they could not afford to take it lightly.

Moreover, migration was already imminent, and they had to prepare a response.

At the foot of the mountain.

The important members of the clan, both men and women, sat together to hold a great assembly.

They had a fixed migration route, and they immediately named the valleys that the route would pass through.

“These few valleys we can detour around, it just means taking a longer path.”

“But here, we can’t avoid it!”

“If we can’t avoid it, then we must pass through quickly.”

The Ximu Clan had already made preparations, reconfirming the migration route.

Yet, as the leader, the Great Mother still gazed into the distance with deep worry.

“Heaven’s punishment descends, and the entire clan will perish!”

This single sentence lingered constantly in her heart.

As the leader, the Great Mother did not notice that someone among the crowd that had just dispersed quietly slipped away and secretly headed up the mountain.

When setting out, he had also secretly brought along a log used to offer sacrifice to Emperor, tied with a rope and carried on his back.

Having just heard what the Great Mother said, a bold idea arose in this man’s heart.

“Since Emperor can know when heaven will send down disaster, why don’t we bring the Divine Stone with us?”

“Why bother guessing which valley it will be? When the time comes, there will be a warning.”

Climbing from the mountain’s foot up the slope, this sacrificial path to Emperor had already become familiar to the Ximu Clan.

After walking it so many times, they had even repaired it, making the road smoother and easier to travel.

He looked at the great mountain.

Vaguely, he seemed to see the light reflected from the lake high above, and he felt the Divine Stone by the lakeside.

At this moment, another thought emerged.

“Not only for the present disaster—if Emperor is by our side, then wouldn’t we be able to avoid all disasters?”

“We could even ask Emperor where there is endless food, and then we would never need to migrate again.”

When he truly reached the top of the mountain, he gazed into the distance and saw the altar used to sacrifice to Emperor.

He suddenly recalled scenes of the Great Mother, who was both shaman and leader, presiding over rituals at this altar. On that ancient altar built of stone, the Great Mother had lit the sacrificial wood and danced around the flames.

The dance might not have been beautiful, but it conveyed a sense of reverence and devotion to heaven and earth.

Because she was the leader, she could be the one to sacrifice to Emperor and to heaven and earth.

Conversely, precisely because she could offer sacrifices and commune with heaven and earth and Emperor, she could become the leader.

He thought: “The heavens above cannot be touched, but Emperor’s incarnation is right here. If I can communicate with Emperor, then can I also become the leader? Wouldn’t I then be the shaman?”

Wouldn’t he be able to replace the Great Mother and lead the entire clan?

He even recalled that Blue Bird.

“Didn’t that Blue Bird become what it is now only because it touched the Divine Stone and turned into a divine bird?”

“Then what about me?”

“If I also touch the Divine Stone…”

The more he walked, the more excited he became, almost unable to wait.

But his eyes were no longer fixed on the mountain, nor on the altar, but on the Divine Stone enshrined upon it.

He even stared unblinkingly at the figure within the Divine Stone.

As if driven by a ghostly impulse.

He forgot all the reasons for coming, desiring only to touch that Divine Stone said to have fallen from the great sun.

He spoke not a word, nor did he remove the sacrificial log from his back. Just like that, he climbed onto the altar built of stone.

By now, the sky was already dark.

The mountains overlooked.

Beneath the starry sky, he stretched out his hand and touched the Divine Stone. He froze.

“I touched it.”

Then, raising his head, he saw a pair of eyes looking at him.

In an instant.

Goosebumps erupted all over his body.

“Emperor is looking at me!”

He did not know what Emperor was seeing in him, whether Emperor was angry or joyful. His mind went completely blank.

Then, as a powerful force surged into his body—

He felt that he was no longer a mortal, as though he had merged with heaven, earth, sun, and moon.

That feeling made him unable to free himself.

The moment he touched the Divine Stone, his body began to change, along with the sacrificial log strapped to his back.

That log, long dead, suddenly began to sprout once more, growing from his back into his body.

Green shoots pierced into his flesh, sprouting out from all over his skin.

When he came to his senses—

His hand slipped from the jade stone.

He immediately screamed in agony, caught off guard by the transformation.

“What?”

“Why am I sprouting?”

“Emperor!”

“I was wrong, I was wrong.”

“Spare me, spare me…”

He stumbled back again and again, no longer daring to approach the Divine Stone, only wanting to escape.

At this moment, when he looked again at the Divine Stone and the figure within it, his gaze held only despair and fear.

As he retreated, he felt his body growing stiffer, his consciousness duller, until he could no longer move at all.

Like the figure within the jade, he stood frozen in place, utterly motionless.

He still had wood sprouting from his body. Branches grew upward along his arms and neck, and his skin gradually turned the color of wood.

His feet were the same.

Roots first transformed into his meridians, then twisted together, slowly reaching the ground until they finally broke through the earth.

On the other side.

It took more than half a day before the people of the clan finally realized this man had vanished, and they began searching for his whereabouts.

The crowd came before the Great Mother to report the matter.

“A child just saw him carrying sacrificial wood up the mountain.”

“What did he go up the mountain for?”

“He even brought sacrificial wood?”

When the Great Mother heard this news, her face instantly changed.

“This is bad.”

The Great Mother immediately led people up the mountain, chasing after him.

However, that man had already reached the mountaintop in the middle of the night, while they only arrived when the sky was bright.

By the time they arrived, he had not yet died.

Or rather, it was hard for him to die like an ordinary person anymore.

He had already turned into a tree. His arms became branches that sprouted green leaves, and his feet had completely vanished, replaced by tangled roots that pierced deep into the earth.

The only thing that remained was his familiar face, embedded in the thick trunk.

That face bore no expression—no pain, no joy, no sorrow, no anger.

When he saw the clansmen rushing to him, each of them staring helplessly at this suddenly appeared monstrous tree—

He used the last of his strength to speak.

“Great Mother, I was wrong.”

“Do not touch the Divine Stone, otherwise…”

But then, his expression twisted into madness and obsession.

“No, the Divine Stone, the Divine Stone must be touched.”

“This feeling is far too wonderful. I am too strong. I am one with heaven and earth.”

“Emperor!”

“Emperor can grant us immortality…”

Before he finished, his slow, heavy words were drowned out by the creaking sound of wood growing rapidly.

Hearing that voice echoing from the tree nearly scared the souls out of everyone present.

“It’s him!”

“It really is him, he spoke.”

“How did he turn into a tree?”

“What did he do, how did the tree swallow him?”

At the front, the Great Mother listened to the words that came from the tree. She looked at the altar and shouted to everyone.

“Come back, stand over here.”

“If I have not spoken, no one is allowed to step onto the altar.”

Everyone was already so terrified by the tree that their souls nearly flew out of their bodies, and they obediently gathered at the Great Mother’s side.

The Great Mother herself felt deeply shaken, but from the earlier reports and his fragmented words, she had guessed part of the truth.

“He was not swallowed by the tree. He offended Emperor, and that is why he became like this.”

After that—

No one did anything. They just stood there watching the tree.

In their eyes, the tree grew taller and taller. In just a single day, it had grown several meters high.

By that point, they could no longer see the man he once was. No one would have imagined that this tree was once a person.

Yet everyone felt a deep fear and reverence rise within them.

Finally, someone spoke a word that had only recently entered their knowledge.

“Heaven’s Punishment!”

They had never before understood what Heaven’s Punishment looked like.

Now, they had witnessed it.

Only later did they realize—

That to end up like this after touching the Divine Stone was already considered fortunate. For most people and animals that touched the Divine Stone, the results were far more terrifying and tragic.

Only the rarest few could obtain from it the chance to transcend the mortal.

The climate gradually changed, and the time for migration truly arrived.

The Ximu Clan gathered everything and prepared to set out toward distant lands, planning to return here again the following year.

Before leaving—

They held a grand sacrifice at the foot of the mountain, with the Great Mother personally ascending the mountain and the altar.

By now, the mountaintop had changed greatly. On the once-barren peak, a large tree now stood, blocking the Divine Stone from above.

And that Blue Bird had gained both a perch and food.

When something appeared where it should never exist—

That place seemed to become a divine paradise.

In the eyes of the Great Mother, who had personally witnessed the transformation, it was even more so. With each sacrifice, her reverence for Emperor grew deeper.

The devotion, solemnity, and complexity of the rituals increased step by step.

At the altar, the Great Mother told Emperor of their departure, explaining when she would return, and only then did she respectfully withdraw.

The migration began.

The Ximu Clan passed by valley after valley. At first, they walked cautiously, full of fear, but along the way, nothing unusual occurred.

“It’s not this valley.”

“Nor this valley.”

“Is it the one up ahead?”

Some were firm in their belief, while others began to doubt.

Had they already passed through the valley that would bring Heaven’s Punishment? Or did such a valley not exist at all?

“Was Emperor mistaken?”

“If we avoided the valley of Heaven’s Punishment, then how can we prove Emperor’s divine power?”

“Did the Great Mother mishear?”

“No, if nothing happened, then surely it was the Great Mother who was mistaken. Emperor cannot be wrong.”

“How could this vast heaven be mistaken?”

During the migration, the people of the Ximu Clan would sometimes gaze toward the distant mountains.

Vaguely, in the depths of their hearts, they even longed for Heaven’s Punishment to appear.

Only then—

Could they once again witness Emperor’s divine might and grandeur.

Until one day, they reached the valley that could not be avoided.

On the boundless earth.

Cold, severe mountains blocked the path ahead, leaving only a gorge to pass through.

Upon entering the gorge, the black shadow of the mountains on both sides pressed down upon them, suffocating.

They walked as they carefully scanned both sides.

“Is it this valley?”

They pushed themselves to hurry through as fast as possible, each of them exhausted.

Some wanted to rest, but the Great Mother sternly forbade it. In the end, everyone pressed on through the night until they emerged from the gorge.

Once outside—

The Great Mother led them to settle at a familiar spot, a natural cave.

They felt both relief and deep disappointment.

“Once again, nothing happened.”

“So it wasn’t this valley either.”

“If we had known, we should have rested in the valley for a while.”

Amidst their busy movements, the clansmen voiced such words inside the cave.

In the middle of the night.

The man guarding the fire and the herds at the cave entrance was suddenly startled awake, because the cattle and sheep outside were bleating.

Rain suddenly began to fall from the sky, pattering upon the earth outside.

The fire-and-herd watcher stood up and looked to the heavens.

The sky, just moments ago filled with stars and clouds, now held no trace of light.

Suddenly.

From the oppressive darkness in the distance, a bolt of lightning shot out, descending from the heavens into the mortal world. The flash reflected in the watcher’s eyes like a divine sword splitting heaven and earth.

“Boom!”

Hot on the heels of the lightning came a thunderous roar, like the bellow of a flood dragon.

That deafening sound, as though right beside them, startled all those resting in the cave. Despite their exhaustion from days of sleepless travel, they leapt up like frightened hares.

They quickly gathered at the cave entrance.

The lightning in the distance did not stop. One after another, bolts fell from the heavens, striking that very valley.

The raging lightning twisted and crisscrossed, like towering pillars of thunder linking heaven’s endless dark clouds, like flood dragons writhing in the sky before plunging fiercely toward the earth.

And there—that was precisely the valley they had just left.

Everyone understood, yet no one spoke. They stared blankly at the distant scene.

“Isn’t that the very valley we just came out of?”

That one sentence shattered the silence, and instantly poured a flood of terror into their hearts.

A chill seeped deep into their bones, making them shudder.

And at that moment—

A howling wind truly did rise.

The lightning was only the beginning. Soon, the snow outside turned into tiny hailstones.

And in the distant valley—

Fist-sized hail suddenly poured down, followed by drifting heavy snow.

The plunging cold smothered the valley, as if to freeze every living creature within.

Though the lightning, the storm, and the blizzard did not fall upon them, the entire Ximu Clan felt chilled to the core.

Had they not left the gorge, none could have survived.

But after the terror passed, relief swept through them.

“Emperor was not wrong after all.”

“Emperor is heaven itself, the sky, the blazing sun.”

“Our Ximu Clan is blessed by heaven.”

Then, astonishingly, they cheered.

Amidst such a dreadful calamity, they sang and danced in the cave, praising the names of Emperor and heaven.

They celebrated their survival, and it was as though they were offering a sacrifice of prayer to the heavens.

At that moment.

On the distant mountaintop, by the high mountain lake, the figure within the Divine Stone seemed to sense something.

He opened his eyes. The Blue Bird, resting under the tree at the stone’s side, immediately lifted its head to meet his gaze. The two pairs of Double Pupils locked.

“Go!”

“Take a look.”

The Blue Bird let out a sharp cry and soared into the heavens.

Morning came.

What had been barren land was now covered in frost when they left the cave.

Looking toward the gorge, it had become an icy world.

The cattle and sheep were frightened but unharmed.

With daylight, the Ximu Clan once again drove the herds and set out, turning their backs on the gorge and mountains.

As they left, everyone looked back toward the gorge and peaks.

At that moment, a little girl with braids, sitting atop an ox, proved to be the sharpest-eyed. She pointed at a tiny black speck in the sky.

“Look, Great Mother!”

“It’s the Blue Bird.”

So tiny a dot, yet she still recognized it.

The Blue Bird circled lower, hovering above the earth, watching the Ximu Clan, and letting them see its form clearly.

“It really is the divine bird.”

“Did Emperor send it?”

“Heaven is watching us.”

Seeing the Blue Bird again felt different.

Everyone raised their hands high toward it, then prostrated on the ground, offering their highest respect to greet its arrival.

At this moment, to them, the Blue Bird was no longer merely Emperor’s messenger or the medium between heaven and earth, but also an auspicious omen.

As though so long as they could see the Blue Bird, no disaster could touch them, and heaven would protect them.

At the very front, the Great Mother was the first to kneel and the loudest and most fervent to cry out.

“Emperor!”

It was she, the shaman who first doubted Emperor’s existence, who was now the most devout.

The little girl, sitting on the ox, stared straight at the divine bird circling the sky like a Phoenix, raised her hands high like the Great Mother, and cheered.

“Emperor!”

From then on.

No one had any doubts left. They strode confidently toward the distant lands.

Yet the mountains behind seemed carved forever into their hearts. No matter what they faced, they would always return.

Return to those jade-like peaks, to the altar by the mountain lake.

The Blue Bird circled in the sky once, then returned to the Divine Stone’s side.

The figure within the jade shifted his gaze, glancing at the Blue Bird.

“They made it through safely?”

He did not speak, but the Blue Bird spread its wings, opened its long beak, and uttered a sound.

“Yes!”

“They are well.”

Li Jun blinked, feeling a trace of relief.

“That’s good.”

With the Ximu Clan gone, the mountains grew quiet again. Unknowingly, Li Jun realized he had already been here for a very long time.

After all, even before the Ximu Clan came, he had been here for a long time.

“Has it been years?”

“Or ten years?”

Before the clan’s arrival, everything had felt like watching a film. Only with their arrival did time truly begin to flow again.

“How long must I remain here?”

“Can I ever return?”

As he pondered—

Li Jun’s pupils suddenly trembled, and his Double Pupils appeared without being summoned.

Before his eyes were the high mountain lake and distant land, yet another scene surfaced in his mind.

He saw himself sitting upon a ritual altar built of redwood, silk, banners, and Taoist talismans. Below, rows of Daoist Priests chanted scriptures, and figures dressed like immortals sat in ranks on either side.

“Isn’t this what I saw before I came here?”

The vision pressed forward, the current scene sinking downward.

The ancient world of tens of thousands of years ago and the strange ritual altar atop a modern hospital overlapped, two dimensions of time colliding.

That feeling of double vision returned. Li Jun froze, then understood.

“I am waking up.”

The overlapping visions left him utterly dazed. Was he in the primordial age, or in the modern world?

Which body was his to control, which world his to behold?

But then—an accident occurred.

On the roof of the modern hospital, the walls were suddenly torn apart by a mighty force. Bricks and glass crashed down upon the altar.

“Boom!”

“Woooooo!”

One side of the altar collapsed. Chaos erupted, alarms wailed.

The explosion and collapse of the altar dragged Li Jun completely back into reality.